Urbanism & Infrastructure: II. Parking: B. The Garage

Judged by numbers and ubiquity, the garage is the most successful new building type of the twentieth century. Houses prior to the rise of the automobile often trailed a variety of sheds behind them, but seldom did any of them have the size and functional complexity characteristic of the contemporary garage. It is a mistake to think of a garage only as a place for storing motor vehicles. With an auxiliary living unit above, it can contribute to the house-hold’s economy, or to a family’s ability to shelter a wider variety of its members flexibly. The garage itself sometimes serves as an auxiliary living room, business start-up space, or workshop. Because of its multiple potential roles, the garage can be as important as any single room of the main house except the kitchen. While parking remains primary among the uses of a garage, there remains scope for decisions that enhance its other possible roles. Three aspects can be differentiated: the garage’s placement on the lot, the consideration of its immediate adjacencies, and the design of its architectural elements. Only the first two will be touched upon here. STRATEGIES FOR ACCESS The main categories of garage derive from their methods of vehicular access. Most often, “front-loaded” (accessed by a private drive from the enfronting street) is differentiated from “rearloaded” (accessed from an alley or laneway in the back). These terms are less elegant than, respectively, “direct,” and “indirect,” which subtly call forth not only the technical, but the legal and social dimensions of access. Such terminology permits the legitimization of a useful third category, “semi-direct,” to cover such things as shared driveways and parking courts. In general, indirect or alley access is socially superior to direct or front-driveway access. It preserves more on-street parking space, it is safer and more interesting for pedestrians on the sidewalk, and it allows greater privacy for the auxiliary unit and the activities of a garage workshop. And, not least, it creates a secluded playground for kids of all ages. Where alleys are not possible, a single front drive should be used, but never on lots less than sixty feet wide. In such cases the front face of the garage should be at least twenty feet behind the facade of the house. This minimizes the visual impact of any cars habitually parked outside the garage. (Massive driveway parking has given small lots a downmarket reputation.) The system of a center-block alley provides better backyard privacy when garages block views from behind. This buffering action makes changing the typology and use of structures across the block — often urbanistically desirable — enormously easier. The garage must also be considered with the layers of space immediately around it. Garages on corner lots with center-block alleys should pinch the alley more tightly than standard mid-block lots, in order to close the back yards from the street. Alley-accessed garages should be placed as close as possible to the side lot line in order to allow additional outside parking alongside; this better allows for conversion of the ground floor to other uses. In addition, if the lot is sufficiently deep, the garage may be set back from the alley to allow for a tandem parking space in front of its doors. This is often useful to accommodate the employees of live-work units. Certain variants on the relationship of the garage to adjacent spaces deserve to be tested. The diagonal cluster of garages straddling an alley, for example, allows a narrower alley, allocating the gain to well-defined courts. The New Urbanism has drawn criticism for concentrating on public space at the expense of semiprivate space. The diagonal cluster, the recessed 3-garage “bay” off the alley, and other novel arrangements, should be pursued with the intention of creating semiprivate space while dealing with the necessity of parking.